Thread by @k21fem

1/ 12 I am torn on the question of assisted dying. I would be comforted by the thought that if I was terminally ill and the suffering became too great for me to bear, I could be helped to end my life.

2/ 12 But what persuades me in particular that this Bill should not be passed is the increased risk that would arise for vulnerable women. It is already the case that women kill themselves because of DV and coercive control.

3/ 12 It isn’t difficult to see, then, how a woman might be coerced into state sanctioned suicide. What is particularly worrying in this respect, and frankly inexplicable, is Cl 29 of the Bill.

4/ 12 This disapplies the duty on Coroners to investigate deaths (inc. suicides) where the death occurred as a result of an ‘assisted death’ within the meaning of the Bill. The fact that a death is said to be an assisted death means that there is *every* reason to investigate.

5/ 12 The ENs to the Bill do not explain why this provision has been included. An assisted death under the Bill is a suicide. Suicides (or evidence that a person may have killed themselves) should be investigated and, so far, statute has required this.

6/ 12 Whether or not a decision to obtain assistance to die was in fact made without pressure or coercion (Cl. 1(2)) may only become apparent after proper investigation by a Coroner. It is also difficult to see how this exclusion could be compliant with Art 2.

7/ 12 Art 2 (right to life) requires that the state investigate deaths where the state may be implicated, as will be the case where a state registered / employed doctor assists a person to kill themselves.

8/ 12 In this jurisdiction that duty is usually discharged by the holding of an Inquest (within the coronial jurisdiction).Art 2 Inquests can in appropriate cases be wide reaching and a Coroner may make reports to state agencies directed at preventing future deaths (PFD reports)

9/ 12 These have been useful in at least trying to expose the number of DV killings and to hold the state to account where the police have failed to protect, for example (I have done 3 such Inquests myself where PFD reports have followed and there will have been many more).

10/ 12 Very recently, in the sad case of Jill Parton, the Coroner’s conclusion was recorded as suicide 'in the context of coercive and controlling behaviour'.

11/ 12 The opportunity to record, or indeed uncover, such coercive and controlling behaviour, and to make a PFD report, would be lost if the suicide were said to fall within the scope of the Bill if passed.

12/ 12 That is inexplicable and almost certainly a breach of the state’s duty under Art 2.  It is also a cause of real concern for those campaigning against VAWG and should be a worry to us all.